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Imane Khalifeh was born in 1955 and was educated in Beirut both before and
during the civil war that erupted in 1975. While a teacher at the Nursery School of
Beirut University College, at which she was also a research assistant and teacher
trainer, she endured the agony and misery of both children and adults. From this
experience she developed the idea in April 1984 of organising a peace march at
which the silent majority of Lebanese who were against the war could express
their protest and revulsion at the nine years of death and destruction through
which they had been forced to live.
The idea caught on. The poem written by Khalifeh suggesting the march was
printed in most Beirut's newspapers. There seemed to be an enormous upsurge of
popular feeling for the march and against the war. Perhaps for this very reason
there was also an upsurge in the fighting between the rival militias the day before
the proposed march, which was called of to prevent any more casualities. A
petition which was circulated instead quickly collected over 70,000 signatures.
Khalifeh's mobilising poem said in part:
&quot;We want simply to live in peace
We want to raise up our children
And save our brothers and sisters...
We want our families to remain whole
Let us walk out of our isolation and join one another.
Let us walk out of our tears and screams of pain.&quot;
Imane Khalifeh remained in Lebanon until 1989, working for peace. In the end,
disgusted and frustrated, she left the country and has since lived in Paris. War
stopped in her country, she says, but the people never found the peace they
dreamed of.